We are at the final stage of preparing the required materials for tomorrow's presentation to our client for Third Age Council; and here is something that I would like to tackle hard on before tomorrow. Have you guys looked at the pretty witty activities Third Age Council (c3a) provides for both the young and the old?
How many of you, the young ones, are interested in Bonzai? How about hearing the elderly talking about stories in a competition? How about a mass brisk walk around the Moulmein Estate with grandmas and grandpas? Do you think "fun and beads" provides the young and old the interaction? These are the mild activities that will never have its potential of bridging the young and old maximized to the limit; and in time to come, all of us will realise that there are multitudinous activities to bridge the connection, but the effect is never to be seen as a whole; at least not visable within decades. It's a fail.
To me, bridging the young and old together is about how the old can feel young with us. Yes. of course in reality the elderly has a much weaker physical body; but that is not of main concern.
If by allowing the old to feel comfortable, then perhaps Osim, or OTO would have been earning joyous amounts of profits, or the massaging centre would have had set up a special programme for these elderly who are happy then; but that was not the point. The young has their wants and so does the old; yet what in common they share are needs, and if so, the focus on this project about bridging the connection between the young and old have long transcend above the issue of having the elderly to be feeling comfortable; as theoretically wise, the need for elderly to be comfortable would have turned out to be a "want" than a need that was shared in common with the youngsters, or rather the need of elderly only. But, there is a need to keep in mind that it isn't possible to deny that it is a "must" for the old ones to be feeling comfortable, afterall it is factual in real life that the old couldn't take exhausting activities or events; thus this point of consideration has to be kept under moderation, such that the activities and event we come up with do provide a certain degree of comfortability to the elderly, yet the focus on bridging the young and the old is not lost amidst among the trivial matters that has brought the young and old more difference. So the question is;
"Do you think that what really matters when you are old is all about limiting youself from all facets of activities that are and can be potentially exhausting? Or perhaps by avoiding these activities it makes you feel better as you can enjoy your Osim or OTO massager at home? Wouldn't you have lost the meaning of life by barricading yourself from many of these fulfilling activities? What is your purpose of living as an elderly then, to wait for death's grip to be on you, or to live the best that you can before your time comes?"
Personally, I feel that the constant fails of activities that hasn't been bringing great changes to sucessfully bridging the gap of young and old was due to the fact that the issue of awareness was not clearly addressed. And how could bridging the gap of young and old be sucessful when the members of public who had taken part in your acitivity or event were but bunch of apathetic participants or audiences? Therefore I believe in choosing an event, or an activity that will indirectly inculcate a certain awareness of the need for the old to always remember that it is not about their ages, nor is it about their health restrictions; but the need for them to want to feel young, and the need for them to want to step out of the barricade of being "an old man/woman", so that they can mix well with the younger generations; and in return, the pro-active youngsters will then see the aging flaws of elderly and henceforth an understanding is established.
Of course the question would be why the old first? Simple, the youngsters are open-minded and pro-active, the old are constrained and conservative. Hence, to create a whole lot more of ideas but to be chunked in with the bunch of activities that fail? Or to be the first to break the ice and do things differently?
In this case, just as what the picture shows; I believe its the masses fault including the young people for neglecting the old. And it makes me empathize the old man alot as he had to eat alone when next to him was a bunch of fairly young people enjoying their time with one another. What if I were to pay the bunch of young people huge sums of money just to award them for eating with an old man? Does the true value still stays on? Or does it actually guarantees that henceforth they will look out for lonely elderly and enjoy food with them? Something to ponder about while we are approaching our work I guess; afterall these are real life problems that we have to consider too...As a designer, we are the creator and manipulator of all things, but whether be it for good or for bad, to be influential, or to be influenced, to create for the need of invention, or to create for the need of a purpose, you choose.
Moving on to final assignment.
We are currently still discussing on what mediums we will be using for our animatic, and soon we will release the news in blog with a rough glimpse of how our work will be. And we had in mind an idea that we would want to work on together already; as all of us agree that it is a fascinating idea and we really enjoy it. Hmm, will be showing Amanda the idea tomorrow with some samples of videos and trailers that our idea adapted on.
Thank you for being with me in this entry once again; enjoy.
Haowei
Quote of the day: “It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)”
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